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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27831724">Midnight Devils</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/uraniangirl/pseuds/uraniangirl'>uraniangirl</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Red Embrace (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Romance, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Post-Canon, Rape Aftermath, Self-Harm</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:48:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,555</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27831724</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/uraniangirl/pseuds/uraniangirl</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Mona (MC) had always been a kind and gentle person. She was not dealing with the aftermath of the war very well; a war that she ended by siding with the Iscari, and by proxy ended the life of her boyfriend, Randal. But Randal was no saint, and she had complicated feelings about his death. Walking down a self-destructive road, a certain popular and enigmatic Golgotha crosses her path, and their destinies become intertwined in ways even he couldn't imagine.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Markus/MC, Randal/MC</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Midnight Devils</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>(This story assumes the MC was female, was diplomatic/reserved/humanlike, romanced Randal, and sided with the Iscari. It takes place after Randal Ending I: "Mark David")</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>              Mona was making her way down Sunset, her gait unsteady with alcohol as she stumbled along the sidewalk. It was pocked in places, uneven in others. Old and grey spots of gum, long flattened by a hundred-thousand footsteps, littered the path before her. Here and there a dandelion, against all odds, found home between the cracks, thriving despite the wretchedness of the city.</p><p>              Los Angeles. Just a few months ago, it had held a wealth of wonder and promise for her. Now there was nothing left, except maybe for the empty bitterness of solitude. She had never felt so alone as she did now; not even the night she was turned into a vampire could compare. At least that night she had Markus.</p><p>              The city swam before her, and Mona stopped for a moment in front of a barbershop, city lights visible in its large front windows. She held a brick corner to steady herself and glanced into the window as she did. Reflected in the darkness of the closed shop was her own image, floating untethered in the void. She struggled to focus on it, only managing to get impressions of her appearance: blood staining her long, blonde hair in places; dirt and filth covering her pale face and clothes; two eyes, blue as a jaybird, looking back at her with a hollow gaze.</p><p>              It had been two weeks since the night all hell broke loose.</p><p>              The dizziness passed, and Mona turned to continue her journey down the Strip, but she was mildly startled as a hand from behind landed on her shoulder, holding her back firmly.</p><p>              “My dear Miss Mona, what brings you here in such a state on this fine night?” came the low, smooth drawl of a southern accent.</p><p>              She felt herself being turned around and was soon face-to-face with the vampire known as Markus. He was tall, much taller than her, peering down at her with those haunting blue eyes glowing through his sunglasses.</p><p>              A surprised, “Markus…!” was all Mona could manage for a moment. She tried to clear her head and come up with an appropriate response.</p><p>              “Nothing, I was just… walking back to the hotel,” she tried, but Markus was certainly smart enough to see right through that. The hotel wasn’t anywhere near here.</p><p>              “I see that you are in a very peculiar way right now,” Markus said, but his tone was matter-of-fact rather than judging. He added, “My shop is near here, if you care to clean up a touch before you walk back. I imagine you might frighten the lobby clerks walkin’ in as you are now.”</p><p>              Mona ran a hand through her hair, or at least tried to, until her fingers caught on a large clot of blood that had dried in it.</p><p>              “I don’t want to impose,” she said unsurely.</p><p>              “My offer is not your imposition, sister,” said Markus, and he firmly took hold of both of her shoulders and began to steer her in the direction of his shop. He continued, “And if you don’t mind my saying so, I do believe leavin’ you here to your devices wouldn’t sit right with me.”</p><p>              With that, the two of them walked side streets and alleys until they came to the familiar storefront of Blood &amp; Roses about fifteen minutes later. Mona watched Markus as he unlocked the front door, the neon red lights of the closed sign reflected in his sunglasses. He pushed it open as the bell tinkled overhead, and he flicked on the lights.</p><p>              “There’s a full bathroom back this way, next to the private rooms,” he said as he led Mona through the shop, weaving in between shelves of obscene DVDs and racks lined with all manner of sex toys.</p><p>              “Why do you have a shower—?” Mona started, but he interrupted her.</p><p>              “Let us not ask questions that I’m certain we don’t want the answers to, hmm-hmm,” he chuckled as if he’d just told a good joke, adding, “It’s safe, and it’s clean, which is more than I can say for you at the moment.”</p><p>              Too drained to argue with him, Mona followed him into the back of the shop, where she found there were indeed two private rooms and a full bathroom.</p><p>              “I’ll leave you to it,” Markus said, gently shoving her in the direction of the bathroom. The click of his boots grew fainter as he walked back out to the front, presumably to open and man the counter.</p><p>              Mona stepped inside the bathroom and flipped the lights on. It was nothing to write home about, but if it was for what Mona was assuming it was for, it was nicer and cleaner than she expected. She reached for the counter as she began to slowly undress, still feeling a bit tipsy, her clothes pooling at her feet like a shed skin.</p><p>              Outside, Markus could hear the plumbing kick up as Mona turned the hot water on. He sat at the counter of his shop, paging lazily through that day’s newspaper. Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes to more minutes. At one point, he thought he heard some glass shattering somewhere, but he brushed it off a moment later when he caught the sight of two drunk clubgoers hanging off each other and stumbling down the street.</p><p>              A half hour passed, and a half hour became an hour. Mona certainly was taking her time in there; granted, she’d needed it badly, and perhaps she was just letting off some steam, after everything that had happened. <em>Steam</em>, Markus chuckled as he thought to himself.</p><p>              Ah, he should probably check on her, just to be sure. Markus got to his feet and shuffled to the back of the shop once more, coming to the closed bathroom door. He could still hear the shower on the other side. Rapping the door lightly three times, he called out to Mona.</p><p>              “Miss Mona, I should hope you’re not up to anything licentious in there.”</p><p>              His tone was joking, but there was no reply, only silence and the sound of the shower running.</p><p>              “Miss Mona?” he called again, and although he was starting to feel uneasy it didn’t show in the lightness of his voice.</p><p>              Nothing.</p><p>              He knocked again, but there was still no reply.</p><p>              Sighing as though he already knew what awaited him—and perhaps he did—Markus pulled out his keys and unlocked the bathroom door, announcing himself as he walked in.</p><p>              “I do apologize, sister, for barging in like this,” he started, but abruptly came to a stop at the sight before him.</p><p>              On the floor was a shattered hand mirror, small pieces of it scattered about the floor. The acrid tinge of vampire blood hit his nostrils as his eyes followed a trail of it to the shower, where the door was open. Inside, Mona sat naked and hunched under the water, which had long since gone cold, with large slices bleeding freely along her arm and the chunk of mirror glass that presumably caused them in her hand.</p><p>              Lacking in his usual casual air and witty remarks, Markus leaned over her to shut the shower off. He pulled a towel from the cabinet adjoining the shower and wrapped it around her, crouching down to pick her up in his arms.</p><p>              “I’m not entirely sure what you were trying to accomplish,” he said as he placed her sitting on the counter.</p><p>              “I just thought… I wanted to feel something,” Mona murmured absently as blood began to soak through the towel.</p><p>              Markus tutted.</p><p>              “Well, there’s no need to be this dramatic about it,” he chided her, but his words were gentle more than antagonizing.</p><p>              He pulled the towel aside and took her arm in his hands, examining it closely.</p><p>              “I take it some time has passed since the last time you fed,” he said finally, noting the lingering wounds.</p><p>              Mona nodded numbly as Markus withdrew a pocket watch from his coat and checked the time.</p><p>              “We still have time to hunt, but we’ll need to get you wrapped up for the moment first,” he said as he reached into the cabinet to take out a first-aid kit.</p><p>              It looked like it had seen better days, and half of the contents were likely expired, but fortunately gauze and tape did not. Mona held out her arm dutifully and Markus began to wrap it with careful attention.</p><p>              “I can’t hunt like this,” she said after a moment.</p><p>              “You’re right, you cannot, but if you think I’m about to leave you here alone to make further misguided decisions while I’m out procuring food for you, well, let’s just say you are less intelligent than I initially thought, sister.”</p><p>              As he finished, he glanced down at her discarded clothes on the floor.</p><p>              “I suppose you’ll be needing somethin’ else to wear,” he said, more a statement than a question.</p><p>              “I don’t think your shop has—”</p><p>              “Try not to think right now, it doesn’t seem to be doin’ you any good,” Markus interrupted. “Sometimes the soul is just crying out for a little respite from the consternation of thoughts.”</p><p>              “The… what?” Mona said blankly, unable to wrap her head around his words.</p><p>              “As I said, try not to think about it.”</p><p>              Markus patted her shoulder twice before turning to leave the bathroom, calling over his shoulder, “I will be back shortly.”</p><p>              Mona was right, his shop did not generally stock the sort of thing that Mona, sweet paragon of wholesomeness that she was, would be inclined to wear. But with a little creativity, Markus was sure he could come up with something.</p><p>              Several minutes later he reappeared, holding two shirts and some packaged leggings with a colorful pattern that Mona couldn’t quite discern.</p><p>              “I’m afraid the only shoes I have are more suitable for an exotic dancer than a drunk, but I imagine yours will do just fine. Now, which of the sexually suggestive tee-shirts would you like to wear?” Markus asked, tossing each one to her.</p><p>              Mona held the first one up; it was red, and on it were the words ORGASM DONOR in bold white lettering, complete with a white cross below it. She scoffed.</p><p>              “I’m not wearing this.”</p><p>              “Well, that would be why I brought a second option,” replied Markus, completely unbothered.</p><p>              Mona set the first shirt aside and held up the second one. It was not much better with a single candle atop a cartoony birthday cake, and underneath that in bubble lettering: BLOW ME, IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!</p><p>              “Markus…” she said, exasperated.</p><p>              “I do apologize, Miss Mona; I am aware of your delicate sensibilities,” Markus said, inclining his head towards her, “And so I believe you will find these to be the least offensive of the clothing articles I carry here.”</p><p>              Mona sighed, but she was too tired to push the issue any further. He might have been telling the truth, but he might also just be messing with her. With Markus, it was always hard to tell.</p><p>              Resigned to her fate, Mona pulled the “orgasm donor” shirt over her head. It was loose, obviously meant for a man at least twice her size.</p><p>              “I hope the pants are better,” she muttered, holding out her hand for them.</p><p>              “That would be a matter of opinion,” Markus said nonchalantly, passing them off to her.</p><p>              Mona pulled the leggings out of the package and examined them.</p><p>              “Markus, it’s—they’re—”</p><p>              “Phalluses, yes. The pattern is quite clever. Few would notice without a closer look,” he added pointedly.</p><p>              Mona took a moment to glower at him before shelving her complaints and begrudgingly pulling the leggings on. They fit well enough. She next pulled her boots on, then stood up and glanced in the mirror.</p><p>              “You want to go hunt while I look like this?” she asked. “I look like a crazy person, no one’s going to come within twenty feet of us.”</p><p>              It was true; she was quite a sight in her bright red novelty men’s adult shirt and colorfully patterned penis leggings, on top of her damp hair, gaunt face, bandaged arm, and hollow expression.</p><p>              “You needn’t worry your pretty little head, sister, leave everything to me,” said Markus as he beckoned her to follow him out.</p><p>              Outside the shop, Markus locked the front door back up again. Mona wondered briefly how he ever made money here; it seemed like he closed shop frequently, as busy as he often was with various vampire-related activities every night.</p><p>              Markus led her to a nearby parking garage, wherein he had parked his ’94 VW Golf. He held the passenger side door open for Mona as she climbed inside before seating himself.</p><p>              “Where are we going?” she asked as he pulled out of the parking garage and onto the street.</p><p>              “The Art District. There’s always interesting folk around there this time of night,” Markus replied.</p><p>              The two of them were quiet for a time, during which Mona kept her eyes on the passing streets and landmarks outside. Finally, Markus cleared his throat quietly.</p><p>              “How have you been occupyin’ your time since that fateful Saturday just a couple weeks ago?” he asked casually.</p><p>              “I don’t want to talk about it,” Mona replied flatly.</p><p>              “Why, enjoyable conversation is that which might simply be called thinking aloud. I was merely openin’ up a space for you to share your thoughts.”</p><p>              “I said I don’t want to talk about it,” she repeated quietly.</p><p>              At that, Markus nodded once, murmuring, “Very well.” The rest of their car ride was filled with a silence heavier than when they’d begun the trip.</p><p>              Once they arrived, Markus found a space to park, and Mona waited inside as he came around the vehicle to open the door for her. She took his hand as he held it out, pulling her to her feet.</p><p>              “Off we go, then,” said Markus lightly.</p><p>              They wandered the streets for a brief time, Markus scouting the areas nearby as Mona followed him in a distant haze. Eventually they came to a series of loft apartments, outside of which was a middle-aged man in a trench coat exiting through the front gate of the enclosure. He glanced around furtively, as if he wasn’t supposed to be there, and the poor man didn’t have a moment’s notice before Markus was placing a hand on his shoulder from behind.</p><p>              “My good sir, might my companion and I offer you a ride home?”</p><p>              The man yelped and nearly jumped out of his skin as he whipped around.</p><p>              “Oh! Uh. N-no, no, I was just, uh—”</p><p>              “Please do reconsider,” Markus interrupted, and his voice began to take on a haunting lilt as he stared deeply into the man’s eyes. “I’m sure you will find the both of us very charming company.”</p><p>              “Oh, well, I uh… I suppose that’s true,” the man replied uncertainly, his gaze beginning to fog over.</p><p>              “That’s the spirit. The car is right this way,” said Markus, and he began to lead the man away from the loft complex, Mona following behind until they stopped in a nearby alley.</p><p>              “All right, Miss Mona. Dinner is served,” Markus said, motioning grandly to the dazed man.</p><p>              “Dinner…? I thought we were…” the man said vaguely, his voice distant and small.</p><p>              “Hush, now,” Markus said, patting him on the shoulder lightly, and the man went quiet.</p><p>              Mona hesitated.</p><p>              “I don’t… normally feed like this, Markus, I usually just drink the blood bags,” she said uncertainly.</p><p>              “Sister, allow me to be honest with you for a moment,” said Markus. “A blood bag will not be doin’ much of anything for you in your current… condition. What you need is fresh blood.”</p><p>              “I don’t want to,” Mona said more firmly.</p><p>              “You should have thought of that before starving yourself for a week and then goin’ Mr. Kreuger on yourself,” said Markus, not the slightest bit sympathetic.</p><p>              The man glanced dreamily between the two of them, the faint smile of hypnotized prey on his face.</p><p>              “Come on now, we don’t have all night. Sunrise will be here soon enough,” Markus said, just a touch of impatience leaking into his normally calm, collected tone of voice.</p><p>              Mona reluctantly took the man by his shoulders, staring into his watery blue eyes. A moment later, she shook her head.</p><p>              “I can’t.”</p><p>              Markus sighed.</p><p>              “If you don’t voluntarily drink from this human right now, I’m afraid I will have to pin you down and wring him out into your mouth until he’s nothin’ but cartilage and bone,” he said, glancing down at Mona. “You don’t want that, do you?”</p><p>              “You wouldn’t—”</p><p>              “Oh, I most certainly would, Miss Mona, make no mistake,” Markus interrupted her.</p><p>              Mona bit her bottom lip, but she didn’t move to feed from him.</p><p>              Markus reached into the man’s back pocket and pulled out his wallet, glancing through it carelessly.</p><p>              “Michael Hatfield, look at that, a father of three. Two boys and a girl. Lovely wife,” he said as he flipped through the photos.</p><p>              “Stop it, Markus,” Mona said.</p><p>              “It would be such a shame for him to lose his life tonight, even if he is engaging in an affair with another man. Three little children without their father,” Markus continued.</p><p>              “I said stop it,” Mona said, her voice rising.</p><p>              “Ah well, that’s life, isn’t it? Or as they say in France, c’est la vie,” said Markus as he reached out to grab the man by his neck.</p><p>              “STOP IT!” Mona yelled, pulling him away from Markus. “Fine, I’ll do it! Just… give me a little privacy.”</p><p>              Markus shrugged.</p><p>              “I don’t see why not,” he said, shuffling by her to exit the alley as he added, “No tricks, now.”</p><p>              “No tricks,” Mona promised. She was certain she wouldn’t be able to trick Markus even if she wanted to.</p><p>              With Markus stationed on the sidewalk, she was now alone in the alley with Michael Hatfield. He still wore the dreamy expression of one who was under the suggestive influence of a vampire.</p><p>              Mona had little cause for ceremony, and so she took him by the shoulders again. She whispered, “I’m sorry,” to which Michael Hatfield murmured an unintelligible reply. As she sank her fangs into his meaty neck he gave a small cry of protest, but he was soon overtaken by the ecstasy of the vampire’s kiss. His eyes rolled back in his head, and Mona’s frame, small and weak as it was in this moment, struggled to support him as she drank.</p><p>              As the warm, red liquid slid down her throat, Mona recognized that this was exactly what she had needed. It was like a hot meal after a day spent in the snow; it leeched the tiredness from her bones, reinvigorating her from the inside. Although she was loathe to admit it, Markus had been right. She could already feel the wounds on her arm beginning to knit themselves back together beneath the bandages.</p><p>              When she’d finished, Mona let him sink to the ground carefully, leaning him against the stone wall of the alleyway. In an hour or two he would wake up none the wiser, and she and Markus would be long gone.</p><p>              “Does that not feel much better now, Miss Mona?” came the southern drawl of Markus from the head of the alleyway as he watched her.</p><p>              “It… helped,” Mona admitted begrudgingly, rejoining him on the sidewalk.</p><p>              “No need to be so careful with your words, I won’t let it go to my head, hmm-hmm,” Markus chuckled as they made their way back to the car. “Now, the time to head back home swiftly approaches, as does the sun.”</p><p>              Mona nodded as they climbed back into the car, and Markus started the engine. He pulled away from the curb, and few moments of silence passed between them before she spoke up.</p><p>              “I, uh… thanks, Markus. When we get back to the hotel, I’ll let Saorise know to compensate you,” she said.</p><p>              “Oh, my dear Miss Mona,” Markus said, sounding almost delighted. “You appear to be under the mistaken impression that I’m about to let you go back to that hotel room to wallow in suffering and solitude until your emaciated corpse is nothin’ but fertilizer.”</p><p>              Mona glanced over at him questioningly.</p><p>              “As opposed to…?” she asked when he neglected to clarify further.</p><p>              “As opposed to stayin’ with me for the foreseeable future,” Markus replied, as if it should have been obvious.</p><p>              “But—I can’t, Saorise—”</p><p>              “The Red Queen is the very one who sent me to find you tonight, sister. She may put on a cold front, but she was concerned for your well-being. Apparently, you have been actin’ increasingly erratically these last coupla' weeks, and with little care for your own unlife. And might I say that, after tonight, I don’t believe her concern is misplaced,” Markus explained patiently. “Why, I’m certain that if you’d been left to your own devices tonight you would’ve wandered the streets until the sun came up and greeted you with its righteous light.”</p><p>              Mona sat there dumbly for a time. Saorise… cared about her well-being? She hardly ever let on, despite the fact that they shared the Iscari bloodline. Certainly, she’d been deeply sorry the night that Randal had been murdered, but the next day it was back to business, as if nothing had happened. Mona hadn’t even noticed she’d been keeping close tabs on her these last two weeks.</p><p>              Then again, there was a lot Mona hadn’t noticed these last two weeks.</p><p>              “So, I’m staying… at your porn store?” she asked after a while.</p><p>              Markus allowed himself a small laugh.</p><p>              “Have you not noticed the apartment above my shop?” he said. “I rent that as well, and that’s where we’ll be stayin’. I find it hard to sleep when surrounded by phalluses.”</p><p>              Once back at the shop, Markus let themselves in again, but he locked the door behind them and neglected to flip the lights. Instead, he led Mona through a dark maze of adult magazines and displays of various whips, chains, and harnesses, and up a staircase she hadn’t noticed before. At the end of it was a plain black door.</p><p>              “Ladies first,” Markus said as he unlocked the door and opened it for her.</p><p>              The inside of the apartment was not what Mona had been expecting. As flashy and theatrical as Markus was, she thought his residence would be similarly outrageous. Instead, she found it to be rather utilitarian in nature.</p><p>              The walls were white and undecorated but for a blue sign by the door, which read HOME SWEET HOME and had an anatomical drawing of a honeybee above it. There was a black leather loveseat in front of a TV in one corner, but the rest of the living room space on the left side was empty. On the right side was a very modest but tidy kitchen—and no wonder, seeing as vampires had no reason to cook. Thick, red curtains blocked the windows in both rooms.</p><p>              “Welcome to my humble abode,” Markus said as he stepped in behind her and turned on the lights.</p><p>              “Humble is certainly a word for it,” Mona replied as she took in what little there was.</p><p>              “Now, now, no need to be unmannerly,” said Markus as he set his keys on an end table beside the door and took off his glasses.</p><p>              Mona wandered further inside. Between the living room and the kitchen was a hallway, which presumably led to the rest of the apartment. She imagined it was similarly decorated, which is to say it was not. Turning around to face Markus, Mona gave him a scrutinizing look.</p><p>              “What’s the deal, Markus? I thought you’d at least have some scandalous art on the walls, or something,” she said.</p><p>              “Tell me, Miss Mona, why do we put on the show? Is it for ourselves?”</p><p>              Mona could only give him a puzzled look.</p><p>              “I don’t follow.”</p><p>              “A performance is not inherently self-serving; in fact, it is the opposite. It is for the audience. Why would we put on the masquerade if there are no guests to attend it?” Markus said by way of explanation.</p><p>              <em>Ah</em>, Mona thought as she glanced around the room once more<em>, so nobody really gets close enough to Markus to see his apartment, then</em>.</p><p>              Her eyes fell to the kitchen counter, upon which was sitting several packages of nutritional bars in various flavors, one of them opened.</p><p>              “Wait, why do you have that?” Mona asked as she walked over to the counter and inspected the bars. They were definitely human food, which Markus had no use for as far as she knew.</p><p>              Markus pretended not to hear her.</p><p>“If you would kindly follow me, I’ll show you to your room,” he motioned as he headed further in and down the hallway. Mona decided she would raise the question again at a later time.</p><p>              There were three doors: the first a bathroom, and the second where Markus came to a stop. At the end of the hallway was the third door—his room, Mona figured.</p><p>              Markus swung the door open wide and turned the lights on to reveal, as Mona had suspected, a similarly barren room as those in the front. One navy and pine futon was at the far corner, and an empty built-in closet at the other. More thick red curtains covered the windows, and the floor was the same beige carpet that ran through the rest of the apartment. There wasn’t even a nightstand.</p><p>              “I’m afraid it’s not quite as luxurious as what you must be used to at the Hollywood Heights, but it will do for today,” Markus said pleasantly. “I am just down the hall should you require anything. Good night, Miss Mona. Or good morning, as the case may be.”</p><p>              And with that, he shut the door behind her.</p><p>              Mona was starting to feel the exhaustion that overcame most vampires each time the sun rose in the sky. She peaked out of the red curtains, catching the very first light of a hazy blue dawn. If someone had told her two weeks ago that in two weeks she’d be bedding down in the spare bedroom of Markus’s apartment, she would have laughed.</p><p>              And yet, here she was.</p><p>              Mona laid down on top of the futon, not bothering with the blanket beneath her. She curled her knees into her chest and lay there in a ball, considering the events that brought her here.</p><p>              Despite being accompanied by Markus for most of the night, the feelings of loneliness had never dissipated. Her heart ached, a cold and empty thing inside her chest. She thought back to that night… not the night Randal had been murdered, but two days before it, her last night with him.</p><p>             <em> The weight of his body pinning her down. His hands, cold and calloused, wrapped around her wrists. The low rasp of his voice as he whispered cruel nothings in her ear.</em></p><p>              Mona shut her eyes tightly, trying to will the memories back into the recesses of her mind<em>. Not tonight</em>, she thought to herself with a shiver. <em>I don’t want to remember him like that.</em></p><p>              The sun rose higher into the sky, and exhaustion began to take Mona. It led her away from the nightmares of her reality to a quieter, if somewhat restless, place of respite—at least for this day.</p>
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